That era is remembered at a new exhibition which opened last weekend at London’s Victoria and Albert museum – where the Canberra has been chosen to represent the end of an era.

But it was a glorious end.

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“It’s an amazing design,” said project curator Anna Ferrari. “It was an interesting ship from the perspective of life on board. Because it was going to Australia it really focused on outdoor spaces. It had big swimming pools and a lot of decking … they tried to sell it as a holiday on your way somewhere.”

By the time P&O’s Canberra took its maiden voyage in 1961 there were more people flying across the Atlantic than sailing.

But the Australia route was different. The Kangaroo air route had opened in 1935, but even after jet flights began in 1960 the fastest trip from Sydney to London was 34 hours 30 minutes, with 8 stops.

Mural for the first-class playroom on the ocean liner SS Canberra by Edward Ardizzone and his son Philip. Credit:P&O Heritage Collection

In a special 16-page supplement in The Times in 1960, P&O chief Donald Anderson argued that many would prefer the 25-day trip on the Canberra.

“A considerable number will want to enjoy their travel and will then want to go by sea,” he said. “Not even the reduction of the London-New York flight from 15 hours to three makes it enjoyable. It makes it other things, but not enjoyable.”

“The other broad assumption in our particular trade is that migration to Australia will continue and that modern ships are needed to serve it.”

These were the days of the ‘£10 Poms’ – the cheap emigrant fares that were handed out to anyone who qualified (white skin, speak English and pass a tuberculosis test).

More than 1.5 million Britons took up the offer over the decades it was available – and some were lucky enough to travel in style. On the Canberra’s maiden voyage 870 of the 2238 passengers were emigrants.

Ferrari says they would have been in for a treat.

“The modernist design puts less emphasis on opulence – it was maybe less golden and glittering than its predecessors, but it was equally prestigious in terms of the design aesthetic,” she said.

The Tourist-class Peacock Room on the Canberra.Credit:P&O Heritage Collection

The V&A exhibition features lavish interiors from earlier ships whose polished wood and deco features were attempts to turn ships into floating displays of artistic genius.

The Canberra’s interior was designed by the famous British architect, designer and writer Sir Hugh Casson – who also designed state rooms and private apartment at Buckingham Palace and on the Royal Yacht Britannia.

But he didn’t transfer the royal family’s chintzy tastes to the ocean liner. Instead he went for “functional modernity”, with durable materials and ergonomic furniture.

There were plastic walls and ceilings, and radios and air conditioning in the cabins.

There was even a “rumpus room” for teenagers. The contemporary promotional material reveals “in recent years this section of society has established itself in the public mind” and they were rewarded with a jukebox with “the latest rock’n’roll” and a soft drink bar where they could find a Coke or a “pop”.

“The lines were trying to entertain all the passengers, from the parents to the children,” Ferrari says.

In the exhibition, a mural of nursery rhyme characters from the Canberra’s children’s playroom sits just round a corner from a deckchair from the Titanic.

The Canberra, thankfully, escaped its ancestor’s fate. It was scrapped on a Pakistan beach in 1997, after more than 30 years in service.

Deckchair from the Titanic, from an exhibition at London's Victoria and Albert museum.Credit:Nick Miller